Wager games, games in which players bet credits on rounds of the game, are a staple in the gaming community. One embodiment of a wager game is a slot machine. Like most wager games, the slot machine's underlying premise has held constant through its extensive history. Players insert some form of consideration and initiate the spinning of a plurality of reels containing a plurality of symbols, usually by pulling a handle or pressing a SPIN button. The reels spin for a few seconds and then stop one by one, revealing a pattern of symbols. If the pattern of symbols forms a winning combination along a pay line, the player receives some form of reward.
The historical consistency of wager games, like the slot machine, is almost paradoxically supplemented by a culture of experimentation that keeps the gaming experience novel and entertaining. In the case of the slot machine, the most obvious change has taken place in the gaming machine itself. Over time, slot machines have transformed from purely mechanical devices to electromechanical devices to purely electrical devices that can fit into a standalone machine or a phone application, among other forms. Slot machine inventors have utilized this progression to insert additional symbols and reels into the game, creating many more possible winning combinations.
Other changes have been made to the gameplay including skill-based wager games for entertainment purposes. For example, a variety of “second chance” features have been implemented in slot machines to increase the skill-based wager game's level of interactivity. In one embodiment, players can “nudge” a reel during a brief period of time after it has stopped spinning, potentially transforming a losing combination into a winning combination or vice versa. In another embodiment, players can “hold” one reel while re-spinning the others, accruing points for each consecutive combination that results.
One of the most alluring gameplay additions to skill-based wager games is the bonus. Bonuses can be triggered in many ways, from satisfying certain conditions to being randomly awarded, and can take the form of a random number generator bonus round (“RNG bonus round”) or a skill-based bonus round.
In an RNG bonus round, players are rewarded a variable amount of bonus points, usually limited to one attempt per RNG bonus round triggered. Skill-based bonus rounds involve an entirely new game that temporarily interrupts the traditional slot machine gaming experience. In the skill-based bonus round, players are often given a certain number of attempts to accrue bonus points and complete the bonus round. When these attempts are exhausted, the player receives bonus points and then returns to the original skill-based wager game. Bonuses keep gameplay exciting by offering new ways to play the skill-based wager game. However, once the attempts for a bonus round are exhausted, the bonus is finished; the player must trigger another bonus to return to the bonus round.
Although a slot machine is used as an example of a skill-based wager game that limits players to a set number of attempts in a bonus round, a similar scenario exists in other skill-based wager games, like poker, bingo, and blackjack. The present invention addresses this by providing a bonus feature in which the player can continue playing the bonus round after the available attempts have been exhausted.